Page 24 of Murder at the Ponte Vecchio (Armstrong and Oscar Cozy Mystery #11)
‘With the villa, that means around two million euros each, even without Axel Jacobs’s cigar box.
For most people, that could be ample grounds to consider committing murder, but maybe not in this case.
Marco was in touch with the Dutch police on Monday, and I got a communication from them this morning indicating that the three shops in Amsterdam are doing well, and Berg’s children are already rich in their own right.
On that basis, I fail to see what advantage there might have been in it for any of them to murder the old man, especially as the money was coming to them before long anyway. What do you think, Dan?’
‘I agree, although they didn’t know for sure the provisions of the old man’s will.
But maybe money wasn’t the motive. Maybe Berg was killed for another reason, something that links him to the second victim.
’ I thought it worth suggesting the other hypothesis.
‘And of course, it’s possible we’re looking for two different killers and the two murders aren’t related. ’
Virgilio nodded. ‘Yes, I’m struggling to see how the two murders can be linked, although the fact that both men were Dutch and both in the jewellery trade makes it so much more likely.
With such a large amount of money at stake, surely the motive for both murders has to be robbery.
Maybe the killer knew that Jacobs had come to Florence to buy the diamonds from Berg.
It’s possible that the murder at the Ponte Vecchio was the killer looking for the diamonds there and, when he drew a blank, he then tracked Jacobs down and killed him when it was clear he didn’t have either the diamonds or the payment for them. ’
‘Whatever the motive, I find it suspicious that Luuc Berg has no alibi for the times of either of the two murders. And don’t let’s forget that he’s in the jewellery trade as well, so he might have been following Jacobs all the way from the Netherlands.’
Virgilio nodded. ‘You could be right, and it was a family affair. How about this? Maybe David Berg was killed by his son in revenge for going off and leaving the family. Before you say it, the problem with that scenario is why did it take his son thirty years to get round to doing it? I might have the answer to that. They said their mother died only four months ago. What if the mother’s death tipped Luuc over the edge, and he came here looking for revenge? ’
I could see the logic behind this theory, but I wasn’t convinced.
‘When Luuc told us that they’d loved their mother, I could feel a lot of emotion in his voice, but I’m not sure I see him as a murderer.
From what you’ve been hearing, he wasn’t short of money either, so the idea of him killing his father and then Jacobs for the diamonds seems unlikely, but the fact remains, however, that he doesn’t have an alibi for either night. What does the covering letter say?’
Virgilio looked at it briefly before shrugging his shoulders and passing it across to me. ‘How’s your Dutch?’
In fact, with the aid of my very rusty German and my phone, it was relatively easy to get the gist of the letter and for the first time, I sensed some genuine emotion from David Berg.
The letter was, in effect, an apology to his children for abandoning them and their mother.
He explained quite touchingly how he had fallen in love with Claudia Greco – describing her as the love of his life – and when she had chosen to return to Italy, he had had no option but to follow her.
He told the children how much he had missed them and how he hoped that the provisions of his will would at least make them think slightly better of him.
He even signed it ‘ veel liefs’, which I took to be ‘lots of love’.
I gave Virgilio a rough translation before handing the letter back to him.
He took it from me, folded it together with the will and slipped the two sheets back into the envelope.
He stood up and glanced in the direction of the villa.
‘Now I think it’s time to pass this on to Casper and the others. I want to see their reactions.’
‘It’ll be very interesting to see the looks on their faces when you tell them there’s over three million euros in the safe upstairs.’
The reactions of the three siblings to the provisions of the will were mixed.
Casper looked surprised and pleased, his sister looked equally surprised, but studiously avoided showing any signs of pleasure.
Luuc, on the other hand, just nodded a couple of times and demonstrated virtually no emotion whatsoever.
The covering letter drew an expression of satisfaction from Casper, real tears from his sister and, again, absolutely no reaction whatsoever from Luuc.
When Virgilio informed them of the contents of the safe and the approximate value of what was in there, Casper and Emma looked pleased, while Luuc still remained expressionless.
Virgilio asked them if they could delay leaving Florence for another twenty-four hours, ostensibly so that Forensics could study the contents of the safe before handing everything over to the family.
While this was no doubt true, I felt pretty sure that this would also be so that Virgilio could question them individually – particularly Luuc – before they disappeared back to the Netherlands.
I took a final look at their faces before we left the room. Was one of them a murderer, maybe even a multiple murderer? By the sound of it, we had only twenty-four hours to find out.